The Khabarovsk nuclear submarine of project 09851, which is the second carrier of Poseidon underwater craft, is likely to be floated in late June, a defense industry source told TASS.

The Khabarovsk nuclear submarine of project 09851, which is the second carrier of Poseidon underwater craft, is likely to be floated in late June, a defense industry source told TASS.

“The Khabarovsk will be floated in late June at the earliest. No exact date has been announced so far,” he said.

The Navy refused comment. TASS has not obtained comment from Sevmash Shipyard which builds the submarine.

The first carrier of Poseidon, the Belgorod submarine of project 09852 was floated on April 23, 2019. It has to join the Russian Navy in September. It was initially built as a project 949A submarine, but later modified as a special project.

This boat is similar to but smaller than the Project 955 ‘BOREI’ (пр.955 “Борей” – BOREI) SSBN. Working off a similar hull diameter to the BOREI, Covert Shores was able to estimate the submarine’s length as 120m versus 160m for the BOREI. This makes sense as the Khabarovsk does not require the missile section behind the sail. And it is even possible that it shares many components and even hull sections with the SSBN. The stated displacement of 10,000 tons makes it massive, but is much lighter than the 13,000 ton BOREI.

Authors

Martin Manaranche is based in Brittany, France. He is currently studying Applied Foreign Languages at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest. Martin conducted an internship at the French Navy's Ecole Navale in Brest and is therefore particularly fond of naval defense issues.